To those of you who took time to complete this year’s Survey of Administrative Services (SAS), thank you! The most worrisome aspect of the results was the shocking drop in responses. Last year, 616 faculty and staff took time to provide feedback. This year, that number dropped to 330.

What conclusions or theories should we draw from this? A lack in faith that SAS matters? General disengagement? No news is good news? We’re not sure, but we will rethink how we can increase SAS responses next year. We also want to assure everyone that this survey is worth the small investment of time. I can’t speak for the other areas highlighted in the survey, but I read every comment. We look at all of our scores and assess whether they are going up or down. This information helps us identify where we need to focus more time and effort in the coming year. In short, the survey matters and your participation helps paint a full picture of how we are doing.

Regarding the responses to the HR portion of the survey this year, we are grateful for both your qualitative and quantitative thoughts. In some areas, HR went up just a little, in other areas we went down a little, and we remarkably stayed in the exact same spot in some other areas.

Many people took time to provide us with comments. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly:

• Consistency: We need to continue working on assuring we are consistent with our responses and assure that the answer you get doesn’t depend on which member of the HR team you engage.
• Responsiveness: We have made great strides in being more responsive, but we have some additional room for improvement here.
• Staff Evaluations: We need to invest more time working with managers to assure staff performance evaluations are meaningful and relevant. The Great Colleges To Work For survey sent that same message. Managers, that means you’ll need to lean into performance management, too!
• Wellbeing & BUILD: The word is getting out that our wellness, wellbeing, and BUILD programs are great! Linda Feiden does an amazing job with the programs she designs and the partnerships she solicits across campus (and among community partners). If you have not participated in the past in any of these events, it is time well spent. You can learn more about BUILD here and Wellbeing/Wellness here.

We did have a few people who had performance and conduct matters addressed this year. When this happens, it is far easier to blame managers or HR for those experiences than spend time self-reflecting. My hope is that people who have conduct or performance issues brought to their attention will take to heart the feedback—maybe even grow. Not everyone will, but we’ll redouble our efforts to assure those conversations, processes, and events are focused on improvement and opportunity, not blame or judgment.

As with last year’s survey, we got dinged for a few things that are not HR matters. I won’t go into the specifics, as that feels like throwing another department under the proverbial bus, but we’ll share those comments with the departments who do own the processes or topics mis-attributed to Drake HR.

Thank you again for providing us with insight into how you think we’re doing. It’s important to us—it really, really is. If you did not complete this year’s SAS, make a note to do so next year. And, if you have ideas or suggestions for Drake HR, you never have to wait for an annual survey, you can email us directly (drakehr@drake.edu) or complete our standing feedback form anytime you please. Thank you!

— Drake HR